Roach: Pacquiao did his homework in Gensan

MANILA, Philippines – Boxing coach Freddie Roach admitted that at first, he was a little bit worried about Manny Pacquiao starting his US training late.

But when Pacquiao showed off his old form during his training at the Wild Card Gym, Roach gave a sigh of relief.

"I definitely was a little concerned why he wasn't here, because he was the one who said he'd be here the whole time," Roach said in Yahoo! Sports.

The fighting congressman, who has committed to a December 8 bout with Juan Manuel Marquez, earlier promised to hold his entire training camp in the US. However, pressing matters at home forced Pacquiao to kick off his training in General Santos City instead.

"He was clearly working in the Philippines. He was tanned and dark skinned, so that showed me he was doing his running, putting the hours in,” said Roach.

"We did 10 rounds on the mitts today and he went hard. So whatever concerns I had, they were put to rest once I saw where he was with his conditioning," he added.

Pacquiao said he is currently at 70-80% in terms of conditioning.

But Team Pacquiao still has lots of work to do.

“We still have a long way to go,” Roach told Philboxing’s Eddie Alinea.

“It’s only the start of a final six weeks of preparations, but I think, as reports from Manila said, Manny’s really prepared to punish himself in training here.”